Bedroom Games (6 page)

I shut the linen closet door and turned, and
then stopped.

Had I just seen a shadow
cross the doorway at the far end of the hall? My skin prickled with
awareness. Was this house
really
haunted after all? This end of the house was not
as brightly lit as the living room, and my tired eyes were just
playing tricks on me. Surely that was it.

Nevertheless, I sped back to the living room
in record time.

When I arrived back, Brodie was stretched out
on the longer of the two couches. He patted the couch, indicating
that I should stretch out next to him. “Come on, baby.
Bedtime.”

“Pig.” I tossed a pillow at his face, and
followed up with one of the blankets.

He laughed, undeterred. “I know you think you
have this great poker face going on, Kandis, but I can tell that
you don’t like me or anyone else in this house other than maybe
Jendan.”

I turned to my couch and shook out my
blanket. “That’s not true,” I protested, thought it might have been
true. Katy and Liam seemed nice, though self-contained. Marla and
Casper were okay. I didn’t know Jayme or Fido.

“Uh huh,” Brodie said, clearly not buying
it.

I ignored him and moved
across the room to flick off the lights. The room turned pitch
black, and I glanced around warily as the
House Guests
logo faded from the big
TV on the opposite wall to allow us to sleep in the dark. There was
a two-way mirror behind me, and I glanced at it. It seemed creepier
in the dark, and I remembered the shadow I’d seen earlier. Jeez.
One day and I was already seeing ghosts.

I hurried across the dark room and climbed
onto my couch to prep for bed. I fluffed my pillow, determined not
to think about it. At least Brodie was sleeping across from me. If
there were ghosts, maybe they’d eat his face first. I closed my
eyes, comforted by that thought.

A heavy body thumped down on the sofa next to
me.

My eyes flew open, and I could barely make
out Brodie’s bigger form and his spiky blond hair. He’d crawled
into bed—on the narrow couch—next to me and was now pinning me
under the blankets. My fists flew to his chest, and I pounded
against him. “Get off me, you douche—”

“Shhhh,” Brodie said in a whisper. “I’m here
because I want to talk strategy.”

I paused my assault, surprised.
“You…are?”

He laughed softly. “Kandis, don’t get me
wrong. You’re smokin’ hot, but I’m here to win the money.”

That made me pause. “So what’s with all the
flirting and cooing over Sunnie? Or Jayme?”

“Jealous?” he teased. “Seriously, though,
it’s strategy. Both are pretty girls, but I need to win some cash
this time around. I played with my dick last time, and look where
it got me.”

“You played with your dick—”

“Figure of speech,” he corrected in a harsh
whisper. “I wasn’t really playing with my dick on camera. I meant I
played while thinking of my dick, and I came in second place. My
sister’s a little bull in a china shop when she gets her feelings
hurt. I didn’t think about that last time, and it cost me the
money.”

“It was your own fault,” I chided him. “I
seem to remember you playing a lot of suck-face with a rocker
chick.”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “She was hot. But she was
also terrible at all the crucial challenges and tended to be hung
over when I needed her to be at her best. I’m going to play
different this time.”

I pulled back a little, trying to study his
face in the darkness. “Do tell.”

“Well,” Brodie said, and he turned on the
narrow couch so he could prop his head up with one bent arm and
face me. His face was inches from mine, and I shivered to myself at
how close he was. Darn Brodie for being so good looking. Darn
Brodie for being so completely untrustworthy and a horndog.

“This game’s about partnering up and making
sure you’re not voted off. Last time, as long as I competed hard, I
was safe. This time, it’s different.” He shifted and sidled even
closer to me. “I already talked to Sunnie and she’s going to work
with us. Katy and Liam will work with us because Katy always works
with me. And I’m pretty sure I can get Jayme. We talked about it,
but she said she wasn’t ready to commit on day one. Marla said the
same thing. I promised each of them final four. We can decide who
we want to take when we get closer to the end.”

Annoyance flashed through me, and I wanted to
smack him, hard. “Are you freaking kidding me? You’ve already made
a bunch of deals with people?”

He looked surprised at my anger. “Well, yeah.
We don’t have to keep to them if we don’t want to.”

“Why would you make a bunch of deals on day
one?” My whisper was so harsh it sounded more like a hiss. “What
the fuck were you thinking?”

“Oh come on.” Brodie was starting to look as
annoyed as I felt. “You mean to tell me that you don’t have an
alliance with Mr. Stuntman? I saw you two getting cozy and making
googly eyes at each other.”

“For starters, we were not
making googly eyes at each other. And that is one person.
One.
You’ve talked to
everyone in the house with boobs and made sure your ass is
safe.”

And where, exactly, did that leave me?

He snorted and sat up. “I thought you wanted
to play this game.”

“I do. I’m here to win, too. But your
strategy sucks, Brodie. You ever heard of laying low?”

“There’s no need,” he said
with a grin and got off the couch. His whisper as he moved back to
his own bed carried to me in the darkness. “You only have to lay
low if you’re not confident you can come out on top. And I know I
can—that
we
can.”

Yeah, I didn’t miss that little slip of the
tongue. I bit back my angry retort, not wanting to damage things
further with Brodie, and thumped my pillow, trying to relax and go
to sleep.

The house was eerily still, and my couch was
facing that creepy, dark two-way mirror. I was exhausted, but I was
also keyed up and not entirely sure I could sleep. Brodie didn’t
seem to be having any trouble, though. I glanced over at his couch
and noticed his handsome face was relaxed, his head propped up on
his pillow as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

Near my head, a floorboard creaked.

I shot upright, skin prickling. “What was
that?”

“Go to sleep, Kandis,” Brodie murmured.

“I heard something.” There was another creak,
more ominous. “There. Did you hear that?”

“It’s an old house,” he said sleepily, not
even opening his eyes. “They make noises.”

“An old haunted house,” I corrected, but laid
down again after scanning the darkness. No shadows, at least. No
unexpected shadows, that is. I wondered how the people in the attic
room — the Hanging Room—were doing. If I was losing my shit in the
wide open living room, I could only imagine how creeped out the
others were.

When I heard a floorboard creak again, I
pulled the blankets over my head.

CHAPTER THREE

“My god. Kandis is smokin’
hot, but she is the most paranoid chick I’ve ever met. She freaks
out about everything. I spent half the night last night thinking
she was going to climb into bed with me at every creak in the
house…and the other half of the night disappointed she didn’t. I’m
only human, after all.”
– Brodie Short, Day
3

“
How is your first week going, Kandis?”

It was day three, and I was
back in the confessional. I rubbed my eyes, thinking. “Well, my
partner’s determined to score with everything female, he’s made
deals with half the house, Mickey keeps trying to give me massages
I don’t want, and I’m pretty sure the living room is haunted. Other
than that, just
great.
”

There was no reaction on the other end, and I
felt suddenly awkward.

A moment later, the confessional booth voice
spoke again. “Have you made any alliances?”

I shifted in the confessional chair and then
tucked my legs under so I wouldn’t twitch and give myself away.
“Well, seeing as Brodie’s spoken ‘for’ me to everyone?” I made
finger-quotes to show my annoyance. “I guess I also have alliances
with half the house. But I’ve only really discussed strategy with
Brodie and Jendan. Brodie because I have to, and Jendan because I
actually trust him. He’s like a brother to me in here. We have each
other’s backs.”

“Any romance there?”

I considered this carefully. Jendan was good
looking, charming, and funny. But I didn’t feel anything for him.
“Not really? Don’t get me wrong, I really like Jendan, but I think
we came in here with the same objective—to claw ahead—and our
friendship is strictly platonic. It’s almost like a job
partnership. We’re both here to do business and that’s it.”

“And is it business with Brodie?”

I snorted and crossed my arms. “Brodie can go
jump off a cliff.”

“Please extrapolate.”

I felt my foot jerk
underneath my butt, just dying to twitch in irritation. Good thing
I’d sat on it. “So here’s the thing. Brodie knows he’s cute and
charming. He thinks that’s going to get him through life and that
if someone doesn’t like him? He can just convince them otherwise
with a few sweet words and a well-timed grin. It’s total
manipulation. The sad thing is that he’s right, though. It’s been
three days and he has all the girls here eating out of the palm of
his hand. Marla made him breakfast the other day. Lenore loves him.
Sunnie spends all her time out by the pool talking to him. He helps
Jayme cook. And he’s busy trying to flirt with me on the
down-low—not that I’m buying any of it. I think I’m the only one
immune to his charm. I just worry that his mouth is going to write
a check that he can’t cash, and then we’re
really
going to be in
trouble.”

“How does this work into your plans?”

I rubbed my face, weary. I hadn’t gotten much
sleep since we’d arrived at the house. Too many creaky noises and
half-seen shadows keeping me up at night. The house was freaking me
out, just a tad, and I was having bad dreams. Some of it was due to
stress, I was sure, but not all of it.

“It doesn’t work into my plans at all,” I
said, and could hear the irritation in my own voice. “My plan was
to lay low. Make a key alliance and stick to it. Ride the middle.
You know, hold back in challenges until about half the people here
were gone. Then, when the odds are better, come out swinging.
Dominate. But Brodie thinks the best way to play is guys versus
girls, apparently. Or all other guys versus him and the girls.” I
rolled my eyes. “So much for laying low.”

“Thanks, Kandis. You can go now.”

I flashed a quick peace sign at the screen,
hauled myself out of the chair, and then padded out of the room.
Since we were in the house, we’d been asked to wear either slippers
or socks so the sound of shoes wouldn’t mess up the audio. Sunnie
had a pair of huge fuzzy slippers. A few other people wore
flip-flops. I liked bare feet. It was how I worked out.

As soon as I re-entered the
living room, I saw Brodie sitting on
my
couch, waiting for me. The others
were nowhere around, likely outside trying to get some sun at the
pool or smoking in the designated area. Brodie had a box of cookies
and was munching on it thoughtfully. As soon as I emerged, he made
a small gesture with his hand, indicating that I should join him on
the couch.

Oh, here we go. Another strategy talk.

I headed to Brodie’s side and snagged the box
of cookies from him and then slid onto the couch next to him. I
didn’t recognize the box of cookies—and the bored houseguests had
gone through everything in the pantry yesterday out of boredom.
“Where’d you get these?”

“Liam and Katy,” he said. “They got a basket
of food up in the Power room.”

I snagged a cookie and handed the box back to
him. “And let me guess, since you’re allied with them, they let you
have your pick of goodies?”

“Actually, I didn’t ask.” He grinned. “I just
went up there and snagged this. Katy won’t be too mad.”

I wanted to shove my cookie into his face
until it crumbled. “Brodie Short,” I snapped. “We have to freaking
live with these people all summer. It is day three. Don’t start a
fight over cookies.”

He shrugged. “Like I said, they’re not going
to care. Katy likes fresh-baked goods more than anything. She hates
this packaged crap.” And he stuffed another whole cookie into his
mouth and winked at me. “You’re free to eat.”

I hesitated, and then took a dainty nibble of
my forbidden cookie. “It’s good,” I admitted sourly. “Still doesn’t
make it right.”

“Relax, Kandis. You’re so uptight.”

“So what are you doing out here?” I took
another bite of cookie, ignoring his ‘uptight’ comment.

“Waiting for you so we could talk.”

“Oh? What about?”

Marla strolled through the living room in her
swimsuit and a towel, returning from the pool. As soon as she saw
Brodie and me, Brodie immediately pulled me into his lap,
pretending to tickle me.

I squealed, trying to jerk out of his
embrace, but he held me tight, his fingers fluttering against my
sensitive sides. “No! Don’t!”

His laughter echoed in the room, and he
pulled me close against him, trapping me against his big body and
sprawling me across his lap. His blue eyes were bright on me and he
grinned. “Ask me nicely—”

“Screw you—”

He began to tickle me all over again, and I
screamed and twisted in his arms, unable to stop laughing. “Mercy!
Mercy! I give up!”

Brodie laughed and stopped tickling me, and I
gasped to catch my breath. He leaned in. “Okay, she’s gone
now.”